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Rumor: Pandemic Closes Doors Today

Early reports are rolling in around the Internet that say Pandemic Studios will be closing its doors by the end of the day.

According to Kotaku, sources are saying that almost all of Pandemic's 200-member staff will be handed their walking papers today, while a few will be slipped in amongst other EA-owned studios. If you're wondering how this will impact their upcoming project, The Saboteur, this will pass to EA's Montreal team, although you can probably forget about another Mercenaries title for a while. Pandemic may be one of the casualties of EA's recent cost cutting plan, which will result in 1500 employees losing their jobs, but as of now, this is only rumor. It's possible that the studio won't close entirely but might simply suffer major layoffs; everyone is awaiting EA's response to this issue. If you recall, Pandemic has been responsible for the likes of the relatively well-received Mercenaries titles, Full Spectrum Warrior, and Star Wars: Battlefront. We haven't heard much of The Saboteur in recent months and that's typically a bad sign, but we're still hoping the project turns out well. We never like to see competent studios bite the dust.

This be a tough business, though. It almost seems like if you don't produce the best of the best, you're always in danger of sitting home, wondering what might have been.